Half year report: Leica Camera increases sales by 28 %

According to a press release, each product group accounts for approximately 50 % of the sales growth, with the Photo product group reporting a sales increase from Euro 87.7 million in the first half of fiscal year 2010/2011 to Euro 115.6 million, a plus of 31.8 percent. In the Sport Optics product group, sales rose by 29.5 percent to Euro 14.0 million

”The business of Leica Camera AG continues to develop very favorably, evidencing that Leica was on solid ground in resolving to focus on new, innovative products and to be present in the market with a comprehensive fully digital camera portfolio”, said Alfred Schopf, Chairman of the Board of Management of Leica Camera AG. ”With more than 30 mployees newly recruited in manufacturing and the expansion of production capacities, Leica is working at full speed to achieve improvements in delivery periods and reduce the high order backlog."

In the first half of fiscal year 2011/2012, the Company’s success drivers »Made in Germany« were the Leica M9 rangefinder camera, the S2 professional system, as well as the Leica X1 compact camera. The Leica compact camera models V-Lux 20, V-Lux 2 and D-Lux 5 also made essential contributions to the positive overall development. Further success drivers are the Rangemaster and Televid product lines in the Leica Sport Optics product group.

In view of the strong half cear results, the Board of Management increased the sales and earnings forecast for the whole of the current fiscal year. »Hitherto we had expected for the Group a sales growth of 3 % to 5 % and EBIT of more than Euro 20 million for fiscal year 2011/2012«, said Andreas Lobejäger, the member of Leica Camera AG’s Board responsible for finance. »The Board now expects sales in the current fiscal year to increase by at least 10 % on the prior fiscal year (Euro 248.8 million). As to EBIT, we now expect an increase of around 20 % on the prior year figure (Euro 41.5 million).”